A Black Spot in a Sea of White
by Rosie2009
Summary: Mal, Evie, and Jay suffer a horrible loss. In memory of Cameron Boyce, forever our one and only Carlos de Vil. Familial feels and seemingly unending angst with an unexpected happy ending.


"How is he? _Where_ is he?!" Mal demanded as her, Evie, Jay, and Dude stormed into the medical wing. The woman at the receptionist desk looked up at the trio, completely unimpressed by Mal's boisterous entrance.

"Who exactly are you speaking of?"

"Just the only guy in this whole hospital that is currently seizing himself to death!" Mal screeched.

"Are you family?" she questioned, bored with the situation.

It was like a bomb had gone off. Mal immediately felt such anger and frustration that she almost couldn't answer the woman. After a moment of her mouth moving in unmentionable words, she finally was able to speak.

"Of course we are his family. Now tell me where he is!" Mal slammed her fist on the desk, her eyes glowing a dangerous shade of green. Dude barked, emphasizing her hit. The woman immediately looked considerably more afraid.

"The Intensive Care Unit," she stuttered, much more respectfully than before. The threesome immediately took off.

Mal's mind raced, a million regrets floating through her mind. She should have noticed that he seemed sluggish on the field. She should have insisted that he not go to the tournament. She should have known.

This was Carlos. That boy was her little brother. She needed him. Evie needed him. Jay needed him. He was the light of hope and humor that shone bright in their lives. And now, all because of their inattentiveness, he could lose his life.

The three of them burst into the room, an air of purpose surrounding them.

The room was horrifying, sheets separating individual beds. There were frail bodies lying beneath each of those sheets, and she stared at them with wide eyes.

There was a doctor as well as several nurses surrounding one particular bed. Mal stepped forward carefully and she felt Evie grab her hand gently. Jay rested his hand on Mal's shoulder that was opposite to him.

They slowly made the journey to the bed.

A floorboard squeaked and the doctor turned to look at them. He was a gray-haired man with a mean receding hairline. His eyes were crystalline blue and his skin was pale. Combined with his snowy white coat, he seemed to be devoid of any and all color.

_Almost like death_, Mal couldn't help but think.

His eyes softened somewhat when he saw the three VKs, and he moved over to greet them.

"It's good that you all are here. I am Doctor Mortem. I already know the three of you, being that the lot of you are such an infamous group." He shook the bluenette's hand, and then Evie had to let go of Mal's hand for a moment so that the purple-haired girl could as well. Evie quickly latched back on as soon as Mal was finished. Jay removed his hand from Mal's shoulder to exchange his greetings.

The three of them stared at the man expectantly, simultaneously eager for and dreading the news that was to come.

He eyed them all in turn very slowly with a gravity in his gaze that left Mal with a deep chill in her bones.

"We have had to revive him five times since the incident. His body isn't able to take much more of the stress that comes with the resuscitation, and if we were to attempt it again, it would likely trigger another seizure that would actually succeed in killing him," the doctor paused, sighing as he rubbed his face with a hand. Mal felt the fear inside of her building rapidly.

"I am afraid that he won't make it much longer."

It felt like a knife to the stomach. Stabbing again and again and again. Mal flinched as if she had truly been physically hit.

She was about to lose all circulation in her hand as Evie squeezed tighter than she had ever thought was humanly possible. Mal could feel Jay's chest just behind her left shoulder blade as it trembled like a leaf. Dude was huddled next to her leg, pressed as closely as he could get.

"C-can we see him now?" Evie weakly asked, voicing what Mal herself couldn't say at that moment.

"Of course," the doctor nodded his head solemnly and maneuvered around them to leave the room. The nurses surrounding the bed dispersed as well, going to other parts of the room to attend more patients.

She almost couldn't even recognize him. The seizure did something to him- it made him look just as frail as the other bodies surrounding them. He was lying there, his eyes glaze over and his chest rising and falling in shaky breaths.

They moved forward and Jay moved over to grab the girls two chairs. Evie shared a glance with Mal and she opened her arms a bit, offering the purple-haired girl a hug. Mal looked at her with longing, both wanting to be comforted by her sister's embrace and not wanting to show weakness.

In the end, she settled for locking arms with Evie and pressing her forehead against the bluenette's quietly. There was the sound of chairs being dragged around and stopped carefully, and Mal suddenly felt Jay's hand resting on her shoulder.

She knew it was time to face the facts. The two girls hesitantly pulled away from one another and split up. Evie and Mal sat down on opposite sides of the bed and Jay stood at the end of the bed, his hands holding the bar at the foot of the bed in a death grip as his knuckles turned white.

Dude jumped into Mal's lap, looking at his boy quietly. After a moment, he stepped onto the bed gently and nudged his hand.

Carlos carefully and slowly moved his head to look at the dog. A ghost of a smile appeared, and he feebly raised his hand to pet Dude's head.

"Hey, Lil' C," Mal spoke, forcing her voice to sound stronger than she felt. His eyes shifted up to look at her. "We came here to see you," Mal explained, reaching out and taking his hand gently.

"Evie's on your other side and Jay's right down there," Mal motioned her head toward Jay at the foot of the bed. Carlos never took his eyes off of Mal. Mal couldn't help but worry that he might not have heard her. Or worse, that he didn't have the energy to look at the other two.

"Mal," he started and paused for a long moment, the green-eyed girl attentively listening. Evie took his other hand in the time that he was quieted. "Am I dying?" he whispered, looking Mal straight in the eyes.

Her mouth immediately went dry, and her heart almost felt like it stopped beating as she avoided his gaze to consider her response to his question. He had asked her specifically. He knew that Mal wouldn't keep the truth from him. He knew she wouldn't lie.

Mal hesitantly brought her eyes back to his, hoping that she wouldn't have to utter the words.

After a moment, his eyes fell away from her own and she knew he understood. They sat in silence for a moment and she could hear Evie's whine rise in her throat, that definitive sign that Evie was about to cry.

But she couldn't hold her regrets back any longer. She had to tell him. She didn't care if he'd die hating her, but she had to try to apologize.

"Carlos… I'm sorry that I didn't realize you were down today. I should've-"

"Mal. Don't be sorry. Above anything else, don't be sorry," he insisted, a strength in his voice that was completely opposite of his true condition. Mal looked over at Evie, but quickly looked away upon seeing her tearstained face and bloodshot eyes.

"I love you guys. If it had to happen earlier today or now or sometime in the next few hours, I'm glad that I knew all of you," Carlos weakly told them, turning his head to look at Evie and looking down his bed at Jay before finally returning his gaze to Mal.

"You guys were there for me when nobody else was. You helped me," he turned to look at Evie, "defended me," he glanced at Jay, "and inspired me," he looked at Mal. "You three were the best thing that ever happened to me, and I want you all to know that I am so grateful for all that you've done."

Mal glanced at Jay and saw the glassy sheen to his eyes. She knew Evie was already crying.

They were quiet together for a few moments before Carlos coughed hard, shaking all over. He lay back down after a second, and Mal had to calm herself after the momentary panic that she endured.

"I'm scared," he rasped, looking at the ceiling. "Where will I go?" he asked, trembling a bit.

"I… I don't know," Mal told him, her green eyes searching the side of his face as she attempted to memorize every bit of it.

"But someplace grand, I'm sure," Evie piped up suddenly, her voice raw with fresh emotion, and Mal was thankful for the save.

"Probably lots of dogs," Jay suddenly spoke, offering a smile.

"And ice cream. Definitely ice cream," Mal added. They all, even Carlos, shared a quiet laugh at that.

"You know, with you guys here to help me face it… it doesn't seem so bad anymore," Carlos murmured, his eyelids drooping slowly.

"I'm going to miss you, though, when I get there," he whispered. "It won't be the same without all of you to enjoy it with me."

"Yeah… We're going to miss you, too, bro," Jay replied, and Mal detected a tightness in his throat that normally wasn't there as he reached down and gently touched his foot beneath the sheets.

"We love you more than anything, Carlos," Evie expressed heartfeltly. It was obvious she was about to lose it again.

Dude licked Carlos' hand that was in Mal's.

"We'll see you there one day," Mal told him, her eyes growing harder and harder to see through the increasing amount of tears.

His eyelids finally fluttered closed, a small smile on his face as he peacefully breathed his last.

And Jay, Evie, and Mal collapsed to tears, because that was _their _brother.

…

Many years passed since Carlos was buried. Along the painful road of life, Jay and Evie left Mal, too, their lives but a wisp. The three remaining VKs had spent their old age together, marveling at how the world had changed and actually had kept on turning for so many years beyond Carlos' death.

But eventually, Mal had been left alone to live in the world by herself.

Until one glorious awakening.

Mal opened her eyes, but quickly shut them tightly. The sun was so blinding. She must have forgotten to shut the blinds the previous night.

She eventually squinted, barely opening them as she adjusted to the light. It then occurred to her that she was not lying in her bed, and was instead in the grass.

Mal's eyes shot wide open as she gawked at the world around her. There were beautiful trees, the sun was shining brightly, and there were… dogs?

In the distance, she spotted a whole pack of dogs, wrestling and playing with one another. They romped through the soft grass and rolled carelessly in the mud near a stream.

After a moment, it became apparent to Mal that she wasn't feeling any sort of pain in her hand. She had gotten a really bad pain in her hand as of late. She attributed it to many years of overworking her hands and fingers with the pencil.

She looked at her hand and was completely baffled when she saw smooth, soft skin instead of the usual wrinkles and wornness that comes with old age.

Mal glanced up, looking around the place once again. However, her searching gaze immediately halted upon the sight of three certain beings that were approaching her.

It was Jay, Evie, and Carlos. All three of them were as young and healthy as they had been just before Carlos passed away. The threesome helped her up.

Mal hesitantly reached out to Evie, cradling her cheek in her hands. Evie leaned into the touch, looking at her with adoring eyes. Letting go of Evie, Mal then turned to Jay, holding his shoulders in both of her hands. Her face lit up in the biggest grin she had in years. Mal flung her arms around Jay, Evie, and Carlos the best that she could and they all held each other in a tight hug.

After a moment of reveling in the touch of her family, she raised her tear-filled gaze to look at Carlos. He had a wide smile on his face. Oh, how she had missed that smile.

"You were right, Mal."

**A/N: I felt it only necessary to write this since we have all lost our Carlos- our Cameron Boyce. He will very much be missed. I will return to my usual fluff with all of the VKs as well as particularly Mal and Evie soon, but today is for Carlos and Cameron Boyce.**


End file.
